Riding Bitch

New York, New York, May 14, 2008:

A New Jersey man is suing JetBlue Airways Corporation for more than $2 million because he says a pilot made him give up his seat to a flight attendant and sit on the toilet for more than three hours on a flight from California.

Ronatarian Party presidential candidate Ron of Jersey City, says in court papers the pilot told him to "go 'hang out' in the bathroom" about 90 minutes into the San Diego to New York flight because the flight attendant complained that the "jump seat" she was assigned was uncomfortable, the lawsuit said.

Ron was traveling on a "buddy pass," a standby travel voucher that JetBlue employees give to friends or desperate political candidates, from New York to San Diego on Feb. 18, and returned to New York on Feb. 23, the lawsuit said.

Initially, Ron was told a flight attendant had taken the last seat on the plane, but then he was advised she would sit in the employee "jump seat," meaning he could have the last seat, the lawsuit said.

The pilot told him 1 1/2 hours into the five-hour flight that he would have to relinquish the seat to the flight attendant, court papers say. But the pilot said that Ron could not sit in the jump seat because only JetBlue employees were permitted to sit there, the lawsuit said.

When Ron expressed reluctance to go sit in the bathroom, the pilot, who was not named in the lawsuit, told him that "he was the [expletive] pilot, that this was his [expletive] plane, under his [expletive] command that [expletive] Ron should be [expletive] grateful for being on board," the lawsuit said.

When the aircraft hit turbulence and passengers were directed to return to their seats, but "the plaintiff had no seat to return to, sitting on a toilet stool with no seat belts," court papers say.

Some time later, a male flight attendant knocked on the restroom door and told Ron he could return to his original seat, court papers say.

Ron's lawsuit, filed Friday in Manhattan's state Supreme Court, says JetBlue negligently endangered him by not providing him with a seat with a safety belt or harness, in violation of federal law.

"They didn't even send in a stewardess for me to...join the 'Mile High Club' with," Ron said in a prepared statement. "I thought I would at least get some action if I was stuck in the can all that time."

A JetBlue spokesman declined comment on the lawsuit Tuesday.

Posted by Bittle at May 14, 2008 08:30 AM